17-05-2025
Texas court reverses itself in power plant case
Federal judges have ordered EPA to revisit its decision to flunk the area around a high-polluting east Texas power plant for compliance with a key Clean Air Act standard.
EPA 'seems to have forced a result on sparse and suspect evidence' in deeming parts of two counties surrounding the Martin Lake plant to be in nonattainment for its 2010 ambient air quality standard for sulfur dioxide, according to the opinion released Friday by a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling reverses the panel's split decision early last year in favor of EPA. Luminant, the Martin Lake facility's owner, and the state of Texas, then sought a rehearing.
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Friday's opinion, written by Judge Leslie Southwick, repeatedly cited the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo that curbed judicial deference to agency decision-making.
